The Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., was closed on Friday morning after it was discovered that someone had vandalized the iconic statue in the middle of the night. Park police say that sometime after 1:00 a.m. this morning, visitors to the memorial noticed that green paint had been splashed on the base of the giant statue of our 16th president and with more paint spilled on the floor. There was no other evidence of damage and no apparent message left behind by the vandal.

The entire memorial was closed off to the public and the media while cleanup crews worked to undo the damage. However, NBC 4 in Washington did manage to get a distant shot of the mess.

An investigation is underway and police hope that surveillance cameras will reveal who threw the paint on the statue. The memorial will remain closed until the cleanup is complete and should re-open later today.